Nigeria’s digital prison has been built and the gates are closing

Earlier this month, the National Identity Management Commission of Nigeria (“NIMC”) announced the introduction of a new digital identity (“digital ID”) card. This digital ID will be linked to a bank account held at Nigeria’s central bank, which has already launched a central bank digital currency (“CDBC”).

The digital ID, whose launch is supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (“NIBSS”), will have payments and social service delivery functions and will facilitate access to other services including travel, health insurance information, microloans, agriculture, food stamps, transport and energy subsidies, just to mention a few, with payment and financial services being powered by a central bank pre-paid/debit/credit card scheme dubbed AfriGo.

Among other features, the digital ID card will have a machine-readable zone in line with the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (“ICAO’s”) standards for biometric passports, a QR code that will contain the holder’s National Identification Number (“NIN”), and the possibility for face and fingerprints biometric authentication as the primary medium for identity verification through the data on the card chip, Biometric Update said.

Effectively, Nigeria’s new digital ID is linked to a person’s central bank account. Nigeria already has a CBDC, the eNaira, which was launched in October 2021. One of the reasons the eNaira was needed, it is claimed, was to increase financial inclusion by allowing those with a mobile phone but without a bank account to have access to the CBDC through their smartphones.

Smartphones are also linked to people’s digital IDs; the process has been far from voluntary. In December 2023, companies offering telecommunications services in Nigeria were given a fresh order from the federal government to entirely block all phone Subscriber Identity Module (“SIM”) cards not linked to the biometrics-backed NIN by 28 February 2024.

Since April 2022, an order for the partial block of over 70 million SIM cards not linked to the owner’s digital ID has been in place. However, it is a one-way barring as only outgoing calls are not supported on such SIM cards. From 28 February 2024 therefore, all categories of SIM cards whose owners have not done the NIN linkage will be fully deprived of access to all call and data services, Biometric Update said.

For Nigeria, the totalitarian system of control – the perimeters of the electronic prison which will be used to restrict and control every aspect of people’s lives and the entire population – is now in place.

AfriGo “Financial Inclusion”

In January 2023, the CBN launched the AfriGo debit card “to strengthen the cashless economy … to strengthen the national payment system and strengthen the usage of electronic platforms in Nigeria.” It is an additional means of payment to the existing Mastercard, Visa, Verve and Interswitch cards but can only be used within Nigeria.

The CBN gave financial inclusion, to free up forex reserves, reducing operating costs for financial institutions and data sovereignty as some of the reasons for launching the card.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has been on a “financial inclusion” drive for most of the last decade, Tech Point wrote. CBN Governor said AfriGo would help drive financial inclusion in the country.

According to the World Bank, financial inclusion means that people and businesses can access useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs. The World Bank sees a financially included society as one where people, regardless of location, ethnicity or other factors, are not deprived of access to financial services, Tech Point wrote.

Financial inclusion is an oft-stated goal of the CBN. In 2012, it launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy to reduce the number of Nigerians excluded from financial services from 46.3% in 2010 to 20% by 2020 … On all counts, the CBN has failed to meet any of [its] targets.

The claim that a domestic card scheme [AfriGo] will drive financial inclusion in Nigeria has no merit. As the World Bank’s definition explains, financial inclusion implies one has affordable access to financial services.

Many financially excluded Nigerians are not in that position by choice. The country’s high poverty levels mean that even where these individuals have been encouraged to create accounts, they simply cannot … Most of Nigeria’s financially excluded people live in rural areas and earn way less than the national minimum wage. Furthermore, they often live far away from banks and other financial services providers. Consequently, opening a bank account could mean travelling long distances.

With the AfriGo card, the CBN is putting the cart before the horse for financial inclusion in Nigeria, Tech Point, 6 February 2023

Digital ID “Financial Inclusion”

On 5 April, NIMC wrote in an announcement introducing the digital ID card: “This card will address the demand for physical identification enabling cardholders prove their identity, access government and private sector services, facilitate financial inclusion for disenfranchised Nigerians, empower citizens, as well as encourage increased participation in nation-building.”

Although the digital ID card is to “facilitate financial inclusion” it excludes some people living in Nigeria.

“Only registered citizens and legal residents with the National Identification Number [“NIN”] will be eligible to request the card. Cardholders will also be able to use the cards as debit or prepaid cards by linking same to bank accounts of their choice. The cards shall enable eligible persons especially those financially excluded from social and financial services have access to multiple government intervention programmes,” the announcement said.

Biometric Identification System Update

The system currently used to support Nigeria’s NIN was designed to support 100 million records. But at the end of 2023, the country had already issued more than 104 million of the biometric digital IDs and is on track to reach 148 million by 30 June 2024, according to a report released by the World Bank at the end of March.

The World Bank’s report was on the “impactful year for the World Bank’s Identification for Development and Digitalising Government to Person Payments (G2Px) Initiatives.”

“This Annual Report takes stock of the achievements and lessons, and the contributions of ID4D and G2Px to make digital ID and government-to-person (G2P) payments systems,” the report said. “While each initiative has their own area of focus, this year they collaborated closely under the umbrella of digital public infrastructure (DPI).”

In other words, the report showcases the progress made worldwide in implementing the World Bank’s digital ID linked to CBDC programme. The World Bank Group is a specialised agency of the United Nations.

In its report, the World Bank identifies its chief collaborators: “ID4D and G2Px’s success would not be possible without the close collaboration and strong support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; French Treasury; Norwegian Agency for Development (Norad); United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; and the Omidyar Network.”

Five days after NIMC announced its new digital ID card, NIMC announced it was upgrading Nigeria’s national biometric system.

Because of the anticipated additional enrolment of nearly 45 million Nigerians into its biometric digital IDs, NIMC is upgrading Nigeria’s biometric identification system to handle the records of up to 250 million people and support a million 1:1 and 1:n searches per day.

The new system will give Nigeria one of the most robust biometric systems in the world, comparable to India’s Aadhaar, Biometric Update reported.

The upgrade is being done through a renewed contract with Idemia, a company headquartered in France. Although the company has been trying to sell it off since 2022, Idemia is currently owned by Advent International.

Seamless Collaboration

Nigeria’s “Digital Identity Ecosystem” is a framework “to create an enabling environment for the effective and efficient mass enrolment of Nigerians and legal residents in Nigeria into a centralised, secure National Identity Database where digital identities are issued to everyone in the form of the National Identification Number (NIN).”

The project is funded by the World Bank, European Investment Bank (“EIB”) and Agence Française de Développement (“AFD”), a financial institution which implements France’s policy on climate, biodiversity, peace, education, urban development, health and governance in French overseas departments and territories and another 150 countries.

To enable the database and digital IDs for Nigerians, NIMC collaborates with public and private service-providing partners. In the case of the seamless integration of the new digital ID card with payment and financial services, as previously mentioned, NIMC is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (“NIBSS”).

Head of NIMC

NIMC’s Director General and Chief Executive Officer is Abisoye Coker-Odusote. She was appointed by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on 23 August 2023 to take over the role from 24 November 2023. At the same time, Tinubu directed the then Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, to commence a 90-day pre-retirement leave. In other words, Tinubu sacked Aziz and replaced him with the 39-year-old engineer Coker-Odusote.

It’s not clear why Aziz was sacked. The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers noted that NIMC had been besieged by many issues that had proved too much to handle for Aziz.

The organisation’s president, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said, “[Aziz] had a lot of issues which were concerns. He didn’t handle the hot periods of the NIN registration well. Also, the platform was unable to accommodate all the registrations that were coming in. This is somewhere that he was found wanting. Fortunately, he confessed to this also. For subscribers, he was not that successful. He had many issues and hopefully, the new [Director-General] would address this.”

On the other hand, in December 2023, Aziz was presented with an award by the French-based Secure Identity Alliance (“SIA”) for the “exceptional role he played in ensuring a universal interoperability framework and standards were formulated for the identity industry with the highest level of international acceptance/adoption by ICAO.” SIA fully supports the goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda and ID4Africa and its Identity Council. It has four board members: Idemia, INGroupe, Thales and Veridos.

Praising the progress the new Director-General, Coker-Odusote, made in her first 100 days, Tech Economy wrote: “In just 100 days at the helm of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote has ushered in a new era of transformational leadership, leaving an indelible mark on the organisation … She did not waste time to hit the ground running and showed commitment to advancing the NIMC’s mission and mandate.”

Head of CBN

CBN is fully owned by Nigeria’s federal government. It just so happens that its governor, Olayemi Cardoso, formerly chaired the board of Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (“EFInA”), a financial sector development organisation supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Additionally, as a consultant and policy expert, Cardoso has advised and collaborated with major international development organisations including the World Bank, Ford Foundation, UN Habitat, World Health Organisation and the Swedish Development Foundation.

Cardoso, we can assume, is the UN and Bill Gates’ man. Although the head of NIBSS has fewer ties to those driving the global ID4D and G2Px programme, he is nonetheless not unknown to the UN.

Head of NIBSS

NIBSS is a public limited company owned by all licensed banks and discount houses in Nigeria including the Central Bank of Nigeria. Its chairman is the CBN’s Deputy Governor for Financial System Stability, Philip Ikeazor, who was appointed as a CBN Deputy Governor on 15 September 2023.

As well as previously holding board positions on various commercial banks in several countries, Ikeazor has also served as a member of the governing board of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, India (“ICRISAT”) – a member of the World Bank-led Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (“CGIAR”).

The Bill & and Melinda Gates Foundation is the single largest funder of CGIAR.

Last year, during a joint visit with Bill Gates to the University of Edinburgh, Penny Mordaunt announced “new UK aid research” which was being carried out by CGIAR. Gates announced a further investment in UK-based livestock research and development; the research and development of vaccines and genetically engineered livestock.

Earlier this year, Gates made a speech which was essentially marketing his vaccines and genetically modified seeds to Africa. CGIAR is a group that does seed innovation, he said, “If they’re able over the next 3 years to have resources of $4 billion they’ll be able to get improved seeds to over 500 million farmers.”

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